ARTIST STATEMENT
“ This suite of prints, entitled
Re-Entry, is the beginning of my return from a self-imposed exile. The suite is concerned with the esthetic and technical challenges I personally acknowledge to be rooted closest to my most viable self – my myth making capacities: a challenge to capacities which had not been exercised for over ten years, challenge to a painter who had made no paintings, a challenge to a truant.

“ My plan was to seek a place away from anxiety, to structure a void, to create a safe spot free from all influences, especially my own, and to hide in a neutral place. Vulnerable and guilt ridden I did not want to see my past, rather I wanted everything turned to the wall, wanted only white canvas, wanted no self inflicted accusations. This lewd charade of feigned neutrality is an archetypal dance I have done a hundred times. This time the dance took longer. There is no neutral place, no place without responsibility.

“ I embrace the demon that runs thirty years deep in my head. He has not changed. We have known each other since I have been capable of cognition. The inflection of the voice, the quibbling for control.

“ The demand for nuance and the strident impositions on my person mean the bastard is everywhere: my parents gave him to me. Their lives dedicated to the joyful and frustrating pursuit of excellence in music, stand as a moral imperative to me. It is meant to be. I thank them for that.

“ The suite now in progress is projected to consist of seven to nine images, which will be taken through several states of metamorphosis. In the end, a group of them shall be presented as a completed folio dedicated to my parents: John August Hiersoux and Jose Bulens Hiersoux. My thanks to them for the gift of the demon. The demon and I maintain a nervous watchful stance; taunt one another to remain focused at that point which is just beyond an elusive edge. ”Arne Hiersoux, circa 1981